International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 225

Coordinating OER Efforts Across a Mid-Sized College Campus to take four classes in both the Spring and Fall semesters, this would mean the student spends an average of $155 per class. When asked about their perceptions about student spending on course materials, 23 participants thought students spent between $150 and $200 per class, while 26 participants thought students spent between $100 and $150. Twenty-one participants thought students spent less than $100 on course materials. Participants were also asked to estimate the number of student questions they receive regarding textbooks. Thirty-six respondents indicated that they are asked by students between one and five times each semester if the textbook is required, and another 20 said they are asked between five and 10 times each semester. Further, 48 respondents said they are asked between one and five times per semester if an older edition of the required text can be used, far outweighing the other responses to this question. Only 12 respondents said they did not have students ask them about using older editions of required texts. The final question in this section asked participants to tell us what percentage of their students they thought went without purchasing the required textbook. Responses ranged from 0 to 100%. One participant stated that “they [students] cannot pass the class without an access code.” Other comments to this question were “depends on the course, but less than 20%” and “most.” Of the varied responses, 61 participants said 25% or fewer students did not buy the textbook, 13 responses fell in the range of 26-50%, and 6 responses were 51% or higher. Open Educational Resources Awareness on Campus The first question in this section asked participants how much they knew about OER based on the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation definition, which defines OER as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge” (Atkins, Brown, & Hammond, 2007). The majority of survey participants were either unaware of OER (23 responses) or had heard of OER but did not know much about them (28 responses). Only seven participants were currently using OER, with another five responding that they have used them previously for teaching (see Table 6). The 69 respondents who were either unaware of OER or who had never used OER were then asked if they would consider adopting OER for any of their courses. Of those 69, 65 said they would consider adopting OER and four indicated they would not. The 12 participants who were using or had used OER were directed to 217